Day 88 Gratitude for Friends

There are many days that I spend having heart to heart conversations with friends about everything and nothing. They are a source of encouragement, fun, companionship etc. I have a few special friends - some have been there forever through the ups and downs, some more recent yet seem to know me so well and some who have disappeared and come back but yet the bonds stay strong. 

so today I thought I would dedicate a blog post for the special friends in my life.  They are very few indeed but special alright!  

Day 87 Watched some video lectures

Today I focused on some video lectures which are perfect for a quick revision of important learning outcomes of exam topics. Though this is not adequate at all on its own, it is great when you feel that you are not in the mood for reading lots and lots of complicating theories. Useful learning method that I have not used before and hence an interesting 'first'! 

Day 86 A small disappointment..

After having looked forward for the baking classes for nearly 2 months today I went to the institute to register for the class as requested which is due to start on 1 March. To my disappointment I was informed that the class is full and that I will have to join the next intake. Considering that I emailed them early and asked about the registration process I feel that they should have advised me that the classes get filled up fast and that I need to register early. I was under the impression that registering a couple of days prior to the commencement of classes by making the payment was all that is needed. 

Early bird catches the worm! Nonetheless I am not too upset as I have plenty more things to do to keep myself entertained. 

Day 85 Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking.

 The world frequently associate success with people who have charismatic, sociable, gregarious and sometimes loquacious personalities. Companies seem to be on a relentless pursuit to hire extroverts to positions of leadership. The universities and colleges promote extroversion as a highly sought quality that every person should thrive to achieve.

In brief, the society extolls extroversion.  At least this has been the story for many years but are things about to change? The American 'ideal' just may be on the verge of a paradigm shift. And when Americans change the way they think, we all know that the world follow suit sooner or later.


Following a comment made by Rads on my blog post dated 22nd February I felt like understanding a bit about what it is like to have an introverted personality. What I found online was a rather interesting book review published on 'the guardian' website. Susan Cain seem to have catapulted a silent revolution. Her book- "Quiet: The Power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking" has been well received and seem like an intriguing read. 

 Susan Cain seem to be challenging many rooted beliefs and dispelling myths. Introverts are stereotyped as socially awkward people who hate mingling and networking. To an average observer an introvert may even appear as an unhappy person. There is a common belief that introverts are shy and afraid of company and that they are antisocial. However well known personalities such as Bill Gates, Abraham Lincoln and Ghandi are classifieds as introverts.

According to Susan Cain introverts:

- Think in an unusually complex fashion
-Especially  empathic
-Desire peace
-Modest
-Creative
-Gets drained of energy through heavy social interactions and gain energy in solitude and quiet.

Also, very interestingly, according to the author Sophia Dembling who also has written books on introversion, introverts do not fail in public speaking or leadership contexts. In fact they have an upper hand over extroverts because they prepare thoroughly and think things through prior to doing and hence emerge as excellent public speakers.  They lead with quiet confidence.

So if you are an introvert and lived all your life trying to change, or if people have probed you to become more loud and confident, hold your horses!!  Times are changing and tables are turning and you just maybe the next American Ideal of awesomeness!

Day 84 Visited my friend's house and saw her baby girl for the first time

Day 83 Got Caught in a Thunderstorm

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love the rain.  But I have never been outside during a thunderstorm because lets face it- common sense spoils it all and you end up running for shelter.
But today was different. Today I got caught in the rain while having the swimming lessons and the coach, hoping that it would end soon continued with the lesson for sometime.  Of course when the rain turned to a thunderstorm he unfortunately led us out of the pool to the spectator seating area of the pool. We sat there for about 20 minutes and witnessed the thunderstorm in all its glory before the class was finally cancelled.

Day 82 Revisiting Toastmasters Program

22 February 2014



I first joined Toastmaster's Club as long ago as 2009 but I am ashamed to say that I delivered only one speech and quit the program subsequently as I could not find the courage to deliver the next speech. I think it was fear of public speaking coupled  with lack of perseverance to write up and practice speeches that made me lose interest. It also requires quite a bit of your time unless of course you are one of the lucky ones who has the flair to simply walk up in front of an audience and deliver a speech without any preparation or hard work!

Today, I took out my old Toastmaster Member  kit which comprises of 2 main manuals - competent communication and competent leadership. I had a browse through these and also sent and email to one of the clubs who got back to me confirming the next date of the meeting.  Though I will not be able to attend their next meeting I will certainly attend the one after that.

The program comprises of two tracks. One is the communication track and the other is the leadership track. The communication track has four levels and one level takes about 5 months to complete, provided that you have the nerve to deliver a speech at every meeting!

At this point in time I can only promise myself that I will try my best as I know only too well, this is really not my cup of tea!  But how can I ignore toastmasters when I am on a career break and on a quest to improve myself daily? 

So here marks the beginning of a long journey, for this is no easy task for the faint-heated like me!   But if i don't try I will never know......

Day 81 Another boring but productive day

Today also I spent a few hours doing more research and doing some writing for my dissertation. From now onwards hopefully this will be a part of my daily routine for the next 3-4 months without any ad hoc changes which will lead me to ignore this task for weeks! 

Day 80 Went to the Library to work together with a friend

Spent a few hours studying in the library with my colleague. This was a good change from the monotonous and failing attempts at reading research articles from home. It turned out to be a productive study session and cleared a few more grey areas- 'few' being the operative term here.

Day 79 More on Holiday Planning.

Wednesday,19th February 2014

Today I continued to browse randomly to gain inspiration for my shopping list. But my one track mind can only seem to focus on jogging shoes, swimsuits, sports bras, goggles and the likewise. :-)

Of course I found out that one of my favorite homeware stores-'Lakeland' has a presence in Abu Dhabi and then I got lost in their website..... so shopping list will have to wait.

Day 78 Some Places to Visit in Abu Dhabi

My impressions about Abu Dhabi and Dubai was that they were simply great shopping destinations where the quality of products are supposedly  of extremely high standards. In many other countries when you purchase electronic goods, clothes etc you can never be entirely sure whether you are paying high prices for counterfeit goods but apparently in Abu Dhabi and Dubai you need not fear at all when purchasing laptops, cameras, phones etc as everything is 'original' and I heard that on the grapevine of course!
However, when I searched for tourist attractions in Abu Dhabi it was surprising and refreshing to see that the country has more to offer  than meets the eye. Maybe it is just good branding and marketing and I will soon find out. So here's what I found today.

1. Corniche Beach

 This is a eight kilometer stretch of manicured waterfronts and landscaped gardens against the backdrop of many skyscrapers and a lovely beach. There are speedboats available and the beach is life-guarded. There are also many cafes/restaurants and shopping areas close by. 

2. Yas Island 

This is known as the island of adventure  and is home to attractions such as the Ferrari world and Waterworld. This a 2500 hectare island which is dedicated to leisure and entertainment.

The Ferrari World is the largest indoor them park in the world and the only one featuring ferrari theme rides. 

Yas Waterworld which has been opened only in 2013 is among the best Water Parks in the world - http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/31/travel/worlds-best-water-parks/ 

Aquaventure Waterpark in Dubai is also on top of the above list.

Day 77 Watched the movie- The Fifth Estate (2013)

The movie is based on the once extremely hot topic of WikiLeaks of which I must confess I knew nothing. So this movie would have been a great opportunity for me to polish up my general awareness but I lost interest half way through the movie and as a result could not figure out the story. However I think Benedict Cumberbatch put up a brilliant performance here and I intend to have another go at watching this movie as I simply dont want to miss something with such an intriguing underlying theme. 

Day 76 Some Inspiration.

My swimming coach occasionally shares valuable information about swimming and fitness with us via email. He also regularly sends inspirational quotes maybe for the sake o keeping in touch and to stop us from giving up before reaching the goal. So I thought today I will post some of those on my blog so that I could read about it an year later when I revisit my journey of reflections. 

Day 74 & Day 75

14th February 2014

Day 74

Valentine's Day

listened to songs and had a relaxing day! (as alway).

15 February 2014
Day 75
Spent time with my grandmother. I went to see my grandmother after about 2 months and unlike on other visits this time I walked around with her to see her newly planted vegetables. I usually stay indoors talking to my aunts and hardly step outside as I am terrified of creepy crawlies. This time I made a change and walked in the gardens and even captured some pictures.

Day 73 Compiled a list of Songs to listen on Valentines Day

Queen of My Heart -Westlife

You are still the one - Shania Twain

Wrapped- Gloria Estefan

Beautiful in my eyes- Joshua kadison

Buy me a Rose- Luther Vandross

Never Too Much- Luther Vandross

Carry Me Like a Fire- Chris DeBurgh

I could not ask for more- Edwin McCaine

Endless Summer Nights- Brian Adams

Almost Here- Brian McFadden 

You're My Number 1 - Enrique Iglesias

I Don't Want to Miss a Thing - Aerosmith

Day 72 A Walk Down the Memory Lane- Idioms

My memories about heaven are and will always be intricately linked with idioms (...and countless other things).  In fact, I won't be too wide of the mark if I say, that learning and practicing idioms was one of the most fun chapters of our life in heaven though now those memories have faded down with time. So I thought I will take a few moments today to take a walk down the memory lane and refresh those loving memories.
I still recall the days when we were introduced to the accent training module - an introduction which led to a landmark commotion and relentless opposition!  Before long this module became the central topic of discussion and for all the wrong reasons! 
Perhaps the instructor's expectations were not in the ballpark or maybe she threw everyone in at the deep end or maybe she got into everyone's nerves or perhaps it was a combination of all those factors making everyone else a bundle of nerves when confronted by her. Whatever the reason maybe, she just couldn't cut the mustard. This of course took the wind out of our sails since me and Rads had a pretty open mind and were enjoying the lessons. However, amidst the chaos we were determined to make hay while the sun shines, so we continued to work on developing a precocious expertise in idioms and as a result we were pretty much on the ball in the class. But where accent was concerned it was a whole new ball game for us too and we just couldn't keep the ball rolling.

Eventually, following vitriolic criticism and social upheaval, the training module came to an abrupt end much to the disappointment of me and Rads.  But then all good things must end...

Life is short and time is swift, so we have happily moved on to much greener pastures-away from idioms and into blogging. Nonetheless idioms will always be a big part of us and we will always look back on those times with happiness. 

Day 71 From a Technophobic to a Techie - mine is a life in the fast lane.

Yes, I take my quest for becoming a techie very seriously. After all, these are times where IT is of crazy importance, where all types of tech gadgets keep getting smarter by the second and there is an app for everything.  The only drawback is  what you learn today would probably be obsolete by tomorrow!  Nevertheless, I decided to teach myself some PowerPoint today since as with many IT skills I have, even my PowerPoint skills leave much to be desired. Secondly, it gives me a perfect excuse to avoid studying or doing my thesis research and comes with the added bonus of avoiding them without any guilt. So today I spent a few hours learning some features of PowerPoint by watching a video and through some reading.  For the record, the new things I learnt include adding a narration, rehearsing a narration which could then be used to set timing for slide transitions, using hyperlinks and 'action' buttons, using the custom animation page, create shorter versions of the presentations by eliminating some slides from the slide show but still have them on the presentation and the use of different formatting tools.
I even came across the 'Sky Drive' app which allows you to open your ppt in a browser so you could access it from anywhere using any device and also allows you to share the files with anyone since it is in the 'cloud'. In the height of my 'tech savvy' mood, I went ahead and downloaded Sky Drive to my laptop!  I have not yet used it since it has been installing itself for the last 3 hours. So I shall have to write about it in another blog post.

Day 70 Checked for online writing communities and for voluntary writing opportunities

Day 69 Read about and Watched a bit of Winter Olympics

Day 68 Taught myself how to use my portable mini speaker/pocket speaker

It's been at least 6 months since I got this portable speakers but until today I did not know to use it correctly. As I was thinking of a new thing to be blogged for the day, this sprang to my mind and I went ahead and read the user manual. It's a very basic speaker and a stereo and hence the instructions were brief and simple. 

It's quite useful as it can be plugged into phones, laptops and iPods using the data cable or audio/FM cable. However that is something I never do. :). I have a strong feeling that I will only use this device as a radio in the long run but I will experiment a bit more over the next couple of  days as I am suddenly feeling quite technical after having read the user instructions! 

Day 67 Lunch at Cinnamon Grand

Day 66 My Movie Review on Zero Dark Thirty

After much contemplation and postponement, I finally mustered the courage to watch the movie 'Zero Dark Thirty' a few days ago. Of course I had my face fully covered with my hands during all the scenes depicting torture (excuse me, I mean Enhanced Interrogation Techniques).
So I can safely say that I missed the true 'essence' of the movie but nevertheless I loved it. My great love and fascination for the CIA (and perhaps fear too) prevents me from making elaborative comments about the contents of the movie but there are some abstract opinions I would like to share about this great movie.
Moving on to the main character- Maya is in a great emotional battle with herself as she does not have much faith in the interrogation techniques carried out and the effect of them on her is shatterring. However her efforts to change them are thwarted initially as she was not influential enough. She also struggles to establish herself and gain acceptance in the man's world of criminal investigations, fight against terrorism and the likewise. However through her conscientiousness and intellignece she manges to collect the eveidence that eventually lead to the discovery of the most wanted man- OBL.

The movie offers an insight into the less talked about side of torture. It reveals the emotional dilemma faced by the CIA agents who have the tedious task of acquiring information from the detainees. The impact of torture is as massive on them as it is on the detainees themselves. We could clearly see the sorry mess that the agents are in and the emotional distress that they are subject to.

 Is the movie an attempt to invite us to feel sympathetic for the CIA agents as opposed to the detainees?  An invitaion to justify the unjustifiable? One of the most touching yet ominous lines of the movie was what the CIA agent repeatedly used  to threaten the detainee -' If you lie to me, I hurt you' and  'You decide how you are treated'. It almost frees the authorities from the guilt and we almost nonchalantly dismiss the sufferings of the detainees as we empathize with the investigators and their battle. 

However to save the movie from the allegations, I personally dont feel that the movie promotes torture as Maya gathers the most vital information without using any extremism. The underlying message is that torture is futile in most instances and fails to deliver what it purports.

Having said that, I suppose the subject of detention will always be controversial and disputable. A complete abandonment of terrorist detention would mean freedom to the wrong doers. Can you blame any country for taking extreme actions for the benefit of the larger majority. The extremely complex world of politics!

But I trust the glorious US will always find an answer.  So, for the time being lets take off the 'T' word from our vocabulary and resort to using the sophisticated euphemism- Enhanced Interrogation Technique.
 

Day 65 Watched Frozen

The movie was as beautiful and as amazing as I expected it to be. I was cometely swept off my feet and was carried into a dreamy world of beautiful princesses, stunning castles and mesmerizing kingdoms. The fact that it had a great storyline added to all the magic!  It will take me a long time to stop dreaming about this fairy tale! 

Day 64 Read the entire copy of the Time Magazine dated 3 Feb 2014

 I typically read only 1-2 articles of the Time magazine and that too only occasionally eventhough I get a copy every week!  So today I thought I will allocate some time to reading which is something that I enjoy anyways and ended up reading the entire magazine in one day. Considering that this took a few hours of my day, it is definitely worth a mention in my blog. 

Day 63 Watched Zero Dark Thirty

Day 62 Contnuing my typing tutorials - completed the Intermidate level today.

Needless to say, this requires a lot of dedication as it is a relatively boring task with very low or marginal improvements. But I am determined to carry on and see what benefits i could reap from all this hard work. After completing the above exercises, now i can pretty much type any letter, number and most of the punctuations without looking at the keyboard and most importantly using the right finger! This of course is certainly really cool but the downside is slow speed but i feel like i am gaining some momentum where speed is concerned too. I am curious to know how well I will fare once i have worked through the remaining 100s of excercises! We will soon find out! 

Day 61 Learnt some new words

Today I spent some time learning a few words that I have come across often but have never considered learning. So today's 'first' was a vocabulary building exercise.  Perhaps some of these will come handy when blogging.

1. Decrepitude- Worn out, Broken down due to old age, illness or hard use

2. Vitriolic- very bitter, harsh or corrosive in tone: vitriolic criticism

3. Iconoclast- one who attacks established beliefs or institutions, unorthodox and destructive

4. Pigeonholed- Treat or classify according to a mental stereotype, labelled

5. Cocksure- overconfident, arrogant